Hue-Da Nang Campaign

The Hue-Da Nang Campaign was an NVA offensive which targeted the major South Vietnamese cities of Hue and Da Nang (the second and third-largest cities in the South, respectively) at the end of the Vietnam War.

On 5 March 1975, the NVA 2nd Army Corps launched an offensive through the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, facing the ARVN I Corps in northern South Vietnam. The offensive was originally slated to last through autumn, but the poorly-equipped and inexperienced ARVN I Corps collapsed, allowing for the NVA to roll over their defenses outside of the cities. President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered his general Ngo Quang Truong to pull back towards Saigon, hoping to save his corps for a final battle in defense of the capital. The ARVN withdrawal quickly turned into a rout, and both Hue and Da Nang fell on 29 March 1975. On 31 March, ARVN general Pham Van Phu and his II Corps formed a new defensive line from Qui Nhon to cover the ARVN retreat, but II Corps was also destroyed by the NVA. The ARVN lost two army corps and two provinces in a military disaster.